Wind and solar need to be backed up, close to 100 per cent, by some other means of power generation. If that backup is provided by open-cycle gas or worse, coal, net zero will never be achieved: nor anything very close to it.

"For every dollar invested in fossil fuels, about 1.7 dollars are now going into clean energy. Five years ago, this ratio was one-to-one," Birol said.

Interpath Advisory was appointed to handle the administration and sale of Toucan last November, as Thurrock Council in Essex revealed it was owed £692 million ($857 million) by the business. Interpath, which has hired advisers from KPMG to oversee an auction of the 53 sites, is hoping to recover losses through the sale of the farms.

The recommendations come at a time when South Africa is suffering its worst ever power cuts, with blackouts of more than 10 hours a day and a slowing economy, and is opening up the electricity generation industry to private operators.

Regardless of how this breakdown occurred, it is the symptom of greater issues with South Africa’s energy infrastructure.

Adopting flexible load management (FLM) could deliver both customer benefits and support clean energy targets.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing various industries, and one area where its potential is particularly promising is in optimizing energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions.

Hydropower currently provides 6% of all electricity in the United States and accounts for 32% of renewable-electricity generation, as well as 93% of all utility-scale energy storage.

In order to meet this goal, the UK must produce five times as much solar and four times more wind.

France, which relies on nuclear for the bulk of its electricity supply, has been pushing to allow a greater role for the technology in the energy transition.